My husband requested a freeform apple tart for his birthday dinner. I make apple pies out of Macintosh apples. Indeed, so sold am I on this one variety that I've never used any other. NEVER.

Well, I've been to every store in town and there would appear to be no Macintosh anywhere. There are, however, jonagolds, golden delicious, granny smith, braeburn, gala and fuji. I'm at a complete loss as to what to buy.

What I like about Macintosh: fine textured not mealy, they melt into one another, tart and moist.

Of those I mentioned being available to me, is there another apple or combination of apple types any of you fine cooks would recommend? I was kind of thinking a combo of golden delicious and granny smith, but honestly I've never cooked ANY of these apple types so I haven't a flipping clue.

Carole is sold on Granny Smith FWIW. The Granny Smith apples retain their shape when baked, and they provide nice tartness and flavor. She throws in a few yellow delicious slices because they cook down into a sauce, thickening the pie somewhat.

Jenise wrote:I was kind of thinking a combo of golden delicious and granny smith, but honestly I've never cooked ANY of these apple types so I haven't a flipping clue.

I'm with Bucko ... Granny Smith are firm and tart and should give you similar results to Macintosh. Winesap would be nice too, if you can get them. Do not use any form of Delicious for cooking: They're nothing but sugar. (Heck, I wouldn't even eat one, but that's just me.)

Jenise, this might be too late, but I was watching a Julia Childs DVD recently, and I *think* she said she liked the golden delicious for tarts. My hero Jacques Pepin recommends the GD too in one of his apple tart recipes. Personally I like the grannys...

There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle. - Albert Einstein

celia wrote:My hero Jacques Pepin recommends the GD too in one of his apple tart recipes. Personally I like the grannys...

I agree. GD would be nice if they actually tasted of something. Granny Smiths have much more of a kick to them, as do cox apples and various other traditional cooking apples. Another, sweeter one I go for is the Braeburn.

celia wrote:Jenise, this might be too late, but I was watching a Julia Childs DVD recently, and I *think* she said she liked the golden delicious for tarts. My hero Jacques Pepin recommends the GD too in one of his apple tart recipes. Personally I like the grannys...

Celia, welcome to the forum and thanks for that information. Julia and Jacques are certainly people I'd listen to. Btw, have we met before? At first I thought you might be Celia from Sydney, but I can't imagine Julia and Jacques down under, so....

Anyway, I think I'm going to have to go out today and buy a ton of apples and play with several combinations. In fact, here's an idea: I have to make like three pies to feed the crowd I'm serving dinner to anyway, so maybe I'll make several variants and let my guests play the role of Guest Judge! One will be GD and granny smith in combination--Bucko really sold me on that idea.

Please be sure to post the results Jenise. My personal current favorite for eating is the Pink Lady, but I'm not sure how well it will cook up. My mom always used granny Smiths for cooking (she used to say that almost everything else turned to applesauce and she wasn't making an applesause pie, she was making an apple pie). Kristi on the otherhand really like the Braeburn apples that we've had here in Charleston for ages. I think she also uses Jonagold (she's at Lisa's for a study session for Micro right now so I can't ask her).